Mathews Conveyer
According to Flostor.com, the conveyer industry started around 1900 in the Minneapolis-St. Paul area by a group of men unloading wooden shingles off of trains. Part of that group of men decided to produce this new contraption and decided upon Ellwood City, “the Seamless Tube Capital of the World“. The men that stayed in Minneapolis started the Standard Conveyer Company, while the men that moved to Ellwood City started the Mathews Gravity Conveyer Company with Rufus P. Mathews serving as president.
Mathews Gravity Carrier Company located on Tenth Street quickly expanded their catalog to not only gravity roller conveyers, but also included gravity roller spirals, belt conveyers, metal spiral chutes, automatic straight lifts and automatic inclined elevators.
After Mathews, Frank Moore officially became president though many considered him the head man there since the company came to town. After Mr. Moore stepped down in 1948, Bill Dean served as the president followed by Mr. McLeary. It was Frank Moore that built Mathews Gravity Conveyer Company to the forefront of the industry when he set up Mailer-Searles in San Francisco to be a manufacturer of Mathews Conveyers on the west coast and he also built a new plant in Port Hope, Ontario, Canada. During this time, Norton Meyer was Chief Engineer and John Offutt was Chief Draftsman. John Offutt was the son of the superintendent of the U.S. Steel Ellwood works, John Offutt, who also owned a considerable amount of stock in Mathews Conveyer.
Bill Dean built the Mathews Conveyer Plant in San Carlos with plans to sale the Mathews products direct instead of through Mailer-Searles. Along with the new San Carlos location, P.W. (Joie) Brown was appointed President of Mathews-West Coast until his untimely death and Bill Peppard was appointed Vice-President and General Manager. Upon outgrowing the San Carlos facility, Mathews built a new plant in Chico, California.
Odd McLeary, as President of Mathews, arranged the sale of Mathews to Rex Chainbelt of Milwaukee, Wisconsin. Rex also bought Nordberg a rock crushing equipment manufacturer and changed their name to Rexnord. The cost of Mathews to Rex was nine million dollars with an additional twenty five thousand dollars a year retirement to McLeary for an additional five years. Legend has it that Mathews Gravity Conveyer Company had nine million dollars in the bank when they were purchased by Rex. Since all of Mathew’s assets became Rex’s property, the actual cost to Rex would have been nothing.
On October 6th 1975, after months of hints and speculation, it was announced that Rexnord Inc., will close the Ellwood City plant within three to four months. Company president Robert L. Blackman attributed the shut down to “economic reasons”. The closing was the second big blow to the job market in Ellwood City as U.S. Steel closed its Ellwood City location within the year. At the time of the closing, Rexnord employed one hundred and sixty people which had dropped down from a little over five hundred at its peek.
If you would like to leave share your memories of Mathews, please do so below in the comments section or email us at info@ellwoodcitymemories.com
Mathews Conveyer Co. was a great place to work. I spent 10 years there and spent many years working in Old Mill “E”. It was the dirtiest part of the plant to work but we were paid a bonus for production so many parts. My Supervisor was Al Biego who was in charge of the department as well as the 4 Heat Treating Furnaces that I operated. His secretary was Pat Rossman and she really kept an eye on our production charts and if our production would fall of several points she would always come and ask why, for we usually ran 150%. My work life there was mainly in the Mill “E” and and I knew everyone that worked there. Many names come to mind and just to name a few Robert “Speed” Miskolske,Duane Weingartner,Pete Muhhollen,Carl Campbell, Ken Ketterer, Gail Blair, Bill Owens, Harold Offutt, Grace Laritz, Jean Brown (my Aunt) Robert Kissick, Tom “Tom the Bomb” Shaffer, Bill Steveson, Paul Rossman (husband of Pat Rossman), Al Parente, Mike Prestopine, Jack “Hummer” Houk”, Tom Henry, Gene “Yoke” Angelucci, Gene “Yummer” Laritz,Harold Parker, Harold “Hap” Parker, Larry Parker, John Zeigler, Bob Wade John Biega Sr, John Beiga Jr.,Lynn Van Kirk, Daniel “Joe” Weisz and Forman Chalmers Workley who had his hands full keeping an eye on us and keeping us all busy.Ward Hoffman,Amos Mazzant Sr. and Amos Jr (before he became famous), Odd McCleary, Tony Yanello, Charles Mitchell who was Maintenence Super. and his son Charles Jr. One of the mysteries there was when Dan “Joe” Weisz would work 11-7 shift his car (an emerald green Olds Cutlass W-90) would be sitting out in the parking lot looking like it just came off the showroom, bright and shiny and not a mark on it at the end of the shift in the morning. It was like working with a family and I was sorry to see it go. Many of the names here are no longer with us but left an impression on me. And after reading the article it sounds like it was just about given away. Mathews closing was one of the blows the city took. In the good times you could go to just about any plant in town and get hired. I have many good friends and great memories from working there. This article brought back alot of great memories that I haven’t thought about for years!! Thanks Guys!!
I lived in Ellwood City from birth until I was about 7. My father was transfered there to work for Mathews conveyer. This would have been from the 1960′s to early 70′s. I have been back a few times and still dearly dearly miss it all. The place and people had such an impact on me. I have a wonderful women that practically raised me until i moved away and she is know as Aunt Gen in the neighbourhood. She is failing with her health. I would like to know if anyone has a newspaper copy about the developement of homes on Beechwood Blv. I know Mrs. Wattick has one but she is not mentally stable for me to ask for it. Any history of Mathew’s conveyer would be appreciated in that area. I would like to pass it on to my children. I now live in Ontario Canada but miss Ellwood ever so much. Lesley
I keep in touch with Jack & Marjorie Forsyth. Mathews became Rexnord and moved to Danville, Kentucky when I was in college. Jack sent me a copy of an article in the local newspaper(KY) that the plant was closing. There are alot of Mathews folks in Danville.
Tell me where your brothers & sisters are. Andrea used to babysit me when I was growing up.
Louise
My father was John W Offutt,Jr who is mentioned in this article as “Chief Draftsman” of Mathews Conveyer. I grew up during his career first at Mailer-Searles then at Mathews in San Carlos, CA and finally in Chico, CA. Many of the names mentioned in this article are familiar to me and brought back good memories.